Forty years ago,
a young
boy named Yukinari hears a voice in the forest. He remembers
being
told that if he ever hears the voice of the forest, stay completely
still
or else he'll find himself in another era. The "voice of the
forest"
belongs to the legendary pokemon Celebi, a pokemon who is being chased
by a hunter. As Yukinari goes to assist Celebi, the pokemon
decides
that the best way to escape is to travel to another time. The
pokemon
takes Yukinari with it forty years into the future, to the time of
Satoshi-tachi.

In the
present-day, Satoshi-tachi
are wandering around the Forest of Ubame when Satoshi spots a
Suicune.
Anxious to get a closer look of the legendary pokemon, Satoshi follows
it into the forest. There, he comes across a treetop village
where
he meets Towa and her grandaughter Miku. Suddenly, a flash of
light
is seen coming from the shrine in the forest, so Pikachu runs off to
investigate.
At the shrine is Yukinari, the young boy from forty years before.
After he is brought back to the village and is woken up, Yukinari
informs
the group that Celebi is in trouble. Satoshi-tachi venture into
the forest to find the time travelling pokemon hiding on top of a large
tree. After convincing it that Satoshi and Yukinari are its
friends,
the two young boys begin befriending the pokemon.

After a little
while of playing,
Vicious, an elite member of the Rocket-Dan, appears on the scene and
tries
to capture Celebi. Satoshi-tachi manage to ward off Vicious and
his giant mecha, hiding deeper into the Forest of Ubame. Once
they're
safe, Satoshi and Yukinari play with Celebi and become close
friends.
Eventually, Vicious catches up with Satoshi-tachi, but this time he
actually
succeeds in capturing Celebi with his Dark Ball! The Dark Ball
turns
whatever pokemon is captured with it evil, so now Vicious has complete
control over Celebi! Vicious instructs it to start destroying
the
forest, and the seemingly emotionless pokemon obeys. Using the
debris
present in the forest, Celebi creates a sort of vine monster that it
uses
to attack the forest.

With a little
help from Suicune
(who appears after sensing that the forest is in danger), Satoshi is
able
to reach the summit of the vine monster where Celebi is located.
There, Satoshi reminds Celebi of all the good times they had together
and manages to break the spell of the Dark Ball. Now that Celebi
is back to normal, the vine monster falls apart, causing Vicious to
retreat.
However, the combination of the Dark Ball's effects and all the energy
it used to destroy the forest causes Celebi to become deathly
ill!
Satoshi-tachi try to resurrect the pokemon, but it isn't until a group
of Celebi transport themselves to the forest (undoubtedly from
different
eras) to revive the pokemon that Celebi comes back to life.
Vicious
makes one more desperate attempt at capturing Celebi, but he is
quickly
thwarted and left to the villagers for punishment. With Celebi
safe
and the forest out of danger, the Celebi transport Yukinari back to
his
own time. After Satoshi bids his new friend goodbye, he continues
his journey to the next land.

Meanwhile, back
at Orchid-Hakase's
laboratory, Kenji uncovers a sketchbook that belonged to
Yukinari.
But why would Orchid-Hakase have that, unless...

Mini
Film Basic Synopsis

In
the
western
beach residence,
Satoshi-tachi's pokemon play. After Togepi is flown to a nearby
mansion
by a Yanyanma, the pokemon all decide to play hide-and-seek.
Using
their various natural abilities, the pokemon try their best to hide as
Pikachu searches for them. Meanwhile, Nyasu and Sonansu are
mowing
the grass nearby. They accidently cause the lawnmower to go
beserk,
and now it's rampaging through the mansion! As the pokemon are
being
discovered by Pikachu, the lawnmower's presence causes everyone to stop
their game and run for their lives! After numerous attempts to
stop
the deadly lawnmower, they finally succeed in destroying it inside a
shed.
With the runaway lawnmower problem solved, the pokemon are able to
start
a new game of hide-and-seek.

Notes

According to an interview
with Hidaka Masamitsu on Pokébeach, the writers had planned to
have Celebi be the pokemon inside the GS Ball that Satoshi carried
around with him during his travels through the Orange Archipelago and
the Jouto region. It was later decided to have Celebi appear in
one of the movies instead, so the GS Ball plot point in the television
series was quietly dropped.

The English
version of the movie was distributed by Miramax in the U.S. instead of
Warner Bros. It came in 18th place on its opening weekend,
earning $717,061. This low showing can be attributed, in part, to
the fact that the movie was given a limited release of about 249
theaters in 20 cities. At the time of the movie's release,
Miramax promised to promote the film in a way that would reinvigorate
the fanbase.

A limited-edition Celebi card-e
was included with the price of admission. For an additional ¥1400, fans could receive a
Kakuleon 3D card,
a pencil board, a
Celebi pendant, and a Monster Ball pin.